Day 20: Breakfast

[right_handed]

Scar felt as if he'd passed out as soon as he'd gotten to his bed due to the admittedly strong fatigue and pain that having a badly injured arm tended to cause a person to feel, even one as conditioned and battle-worn as the stern-faced Ishbalan. He woke up feeling rested but regretful, and his fear that he'd wasted a Nightshift ripe with the

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[heavens_too_far]

Well, that had been a pleasant night. The only possible positive aspects of it were that he hadn't been stabbed again, and that he woke up with a new shirt on.

Dias barely even acknowledged the nurse who escorted him to the cafeteria, instead limping (his side seemed even more stiff than it had been the day before) directly to the food and loading his tray with as much food as the staff would allow him to take. From there...he surveyed his seating options.

Scar. He'd been somewhat concerned about not seeing the man the night before, but he didn't seem too badly the worse for wear. Dias made a beeline for his friend(he was slowly becoming more accustomed to using that word), sitting down across from him with a slight nod of acknowledgement.

Verbal greetings were for other people.

[lustful_thing]

The previous night had left Lust feeling disoriented and a bit perturbed. She had been so close to her revenge, and it had been snatched away from her. Delayed, if she trusted Ling, but taken away all the same. She didn't believe the woman could truly offer Dante protection, but it still aggravated her.

The rest of the night had been uneventful. She'd never found Ginji, after all, or any of her other allies. But with breakfast, Lust rectified that. Ginji was nowhere to be seen, but Scar and Dias had already found one another. Lust got her tray and joined them, limping over and settling in next to the Ishbalan.

After last night and having her past laid raw before her, she wanted the man's presence.

[theycutitout]

River looked similarly traumatized as she dragged herself into the cafeteria, eyes wild as they darted from person to person. There were no surprises today, no surprises on Christmas morning. She'd already known they would be here, and they needed time with... needed time with other people.

Besides, Scar, Dias, and Lust were looking quiet, not questioning what she didn't have the strength to explain.

Words sung softly like a haunting lullaby, muted but resounding in her brain from the night before. River winced and sat down next to her surrogate big brother, silent and looking as though she fit with the quiet group very well at the moment.

[reversebemylot]

One moment Simon had been in the hallway, his flashlight off and tight in his hands, tentatively making his way in the dark. The next, blinding white, morning. It lacked sense, the transition, and it might have been a dream had he not woken up in the same room. A nurse had arrived and called him Jon Williams. That made even less sense, and rung less and less of the Alliance by the minute. They had to be playing with him. But why the games?

Simon knew better than to make a fuss. It would be better if they didn't know he was Simon Tam, in fact, given his status as a criminal. If this was an Alliance game, then they knew, but if not? All the better to keep that quiet and work his way out. He followed the nurse mildly, quietly, examining the white hallways, the white rooms as he walked. The inspection kept him same, kept his mind from pouring over its single focus that would drive him into a wall of guilt and mania: RiverAt breakfast, she left him. Simon knew he would need to eat, whatever might be in the food, if only to know. There

[right_handed]

Scar was glad he was feeling better than he had the day before--resting up for the night had admittedly been good for his arm's recovery--especially since he now had a plethora of people ready and willing to bug him

[heavens_too_far]

Dias found himself relieved to see River looking relatively well - pale and upset, perhaps, but at least her wounds were bandaged and she wasn't clutching at her head again. And Elena seemed to have survived the night as well; it was hard to miss her entrance on crutches. Maybe, for her sake, they'd been lucky to have the night end when it had. And Lust had made a reappearance as well.

Nobody looked any less than quietly traumatized, but they weren't actively screaming or bleeding to death. For the moment, he was prepared to accept that as a minor blessing.

Of course, then someone did scream. Even with Dias' heightened reflexes, by the time he'd turned to look for the source of the sound it was already there uncomfortably close to him - Dias automatically tensed before he recognized that the man was simply hugging River. He was beginning to expect everything to be a threat in this place, but hugging wasn't a known method of attack.

The man seemed...happy. More so than anyone had a right to be in Landel's. That alone was enough to

[lustful_thing]

The quiet, subdued atmosphere of the breakfast table was fine with Lust. She wasn't entirely in the mood to chatter idly. She only wanted the company, the feel of companionship. And it looked as though all of them - for River joined them shortly with the same tired, drawn expression - just wanted the same thing

[theycutitout]

She hadn't seen it. Through all the mist and mirrors, she'd seen them but not him. Maybe they'd hidden him from her, cloaked in veils of shadows and smoke until he was so close and tangible that he couldn't be hidden any longer

[reversebemylot]

"River," he said again, and again, and again, a quiet mantra of her name, a chant, it could have been holy, mumbled at her hair as she burrowed close

[right_handed]

"She's been here for longer than you have." Scar said curtly, not doing much in the way of pleasantries like this newcomer was. He glanced at a nearby nurse and then back towards the so-called 'brother.' "That's the way things work around here. Lives get taken and given back, separations are made across time in ways God never intended. You'd better get used to it or you won't last long."

He looked back to his food for a moment before fixing his gaze on his pancakes and spearing one with a fork.

"Being ignorant is as good as being dead, and---" Scar's eyes darted towards River with some indignation "--I'm not your father, and we've been taking care of ourselves."

His tone swayed one to believe that the opposite of true, but Scar wasn't one for socializing.

[heavens_too_far]

When it became obvious River was too distracted to notice the look he had been giving her, Dias had turned away from the siblings' joyous reunion - he had suspected that Simon was the brother River had mentioned, on the very first day they'd met, and it wasn't long before his suspicions were confirmed. He doubted River minded having an audience, and Simon obviously didn't give a damn about anything beyond the fact that he'd found his sister again, but - it wasn't something he felt right intruding upon.

Of course, it was wonderful that River had found her real brother again, and would no longer have to make do with a poor substitute...

...but a ragingly selfish part of Dias resented being replaced, even if he'd had no right to be in the position for which he'd been replaced to begin with. That River apparently didn't seem to think Simon's arrival changed anything - somehow made it worse. She'd scarcely needed him before, and he certainly hadn't done that great of a job protecting her; her various bandages attested to that. And there